Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1887-12-31
An Appeal from the Prison Cell.

AT the Christmas entertainment in
the Moundsville penitentiary, one of
the convicts under life sentence for
the killing ola mail-carrier boy, made
little address, part of which we re-
print. 1t should be lesson to the
young boys and young men who take
too much drink, and they are not
few. Either there is something wrong
with the enforcement of the law, or it
is impossible to prevent the evil by
legislation, else so many young boys
would not be seen under the influence
of liquor. There is another prevalent
evil we have more than once alluded
to, with nothing but sneers and con-
| tradietions for our trouble; but we are
| moved to warn parents again to save
their sons from the downward course
of whiskey and women. The older
men can do as they please, but it is an
outrage that so many young boys of
fifteen and under know all the tracks
of immortality and follow i'll them.
For some time improper characters
have been laying around town, cor
rupting even the boys. The tramps
who drove them off showed more
taste for propriety than the public,
even if it was hardness driving hard
ness. With conscientious set of
public officers it seems town should
have healthy moral atmosphere. To
those who make light of such things
we say, like father like son."
There is little or no law to govern
looseness in morals, no more than
there is to stop the train from going
to Hagerstown when it is ready to
start; and christian influence is as
powerless to stem the evil tide as it is
to stop an engine under full head of
steam, if the spring of life is corrupted
by immoral associations. Save the
young people in time and they will
save themselves for eternity.
What is it has dragged you down
and clothed you with shame, till the
very men who Slapped away your man
hood will shrink from you, and ''pass
by on the other side ?" All my
friends, does not the answer stand out
in red and fiery letters: Rum rum
accursed rum l believe this mon
ster curse is more widespread and
destructive to-day than ever before.
You have got to fight its power and
influence wherever you make your
home. Go where you may through
the length and breadth of this fair
land, look where you will, and you
see its blight and curse. Do you see it
in the vacant look and crazed stare of
the inebriate? Do you see it in thous-
ands of ruined homes, broken fami-
lies, and orphaned, or perhaps worse
than orphaned children crying for
bread? Oh men, you all know these
things are too bitterly, sorrowfully
true You know what supplies the
jails and the peuitentiaries you know
they unite in unfolding a terrible
chain of evidence! A chain whose
links are wretched homes, blasted
lives, and crushed hopes! Oh, yes
you have felt it, "bite like serpent"
You know the tale of misery and woe!
And could you paint it here, it would
melt the hardest heart, and cause eyes
to weep which never wept before for
suffering humanity. And you know,
too, that a man who drinks cannot be
trusted to perform any important
undertaking, no difference how finish
ed his education, how great his talents,
or how learned in his profession. Its
onward march is mission of death,
robbing men of everything good and
pure and true, and giving in place the
one, bitter, heart-rending wall which
bears down the soul-lost! lost! for
ever lost!!